Unnatural links can severely damage your website’s rankings and may even result in penalization by Google. So what exactly are unnatural links? According to Google Quality Guidelines, unnatural links are defined as ‘links that weren’t editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s owner on a page.’ Unnatural links is a violation of Google guidelines and that is why it is important to remove them, in case, they crop up on your website. In addition, some unnatural links are not very easy to spot, making it difficult for website owners to track them and remove them in an effective manner.
So how do you find out whether you have an unnatural link penalty in your website? To check if there are any manual actions against your website, all you have to do is to go into your Google Webmaster tools and then check the Search Traffic section for Manual Action. In case you have a manual action against your website, you will find a notification regarding the same here. Getting a notification from Google saying that you are involved in unnatural link building can be disturbing but it is possible to tackle it in an effective manner. Here are five things you must keep in mind while trying to remove unnatural links from your website:
• Download as much link data as possible from your Google Webmaster tools account. In case, this does not provide you with sufficient information, you can always invest in some paid analysis tools like ahrefs or MajesticSEO. Also remember, that if you have hired any organization/individual to build your links, make sure that you collect reports from them as well.
• After you have collected all the information, compile it into a spreadsheet. Now look for similar patterns like links that use similar texts again and again. After you have identified the links that might be causing the penalty, email the corresponding webmasters asking them to remove the links. And then make note of those links that are not removed despite your mails.
• It is always better to take as many measures as possible to remove unnatural links because this will help you file a reconsideration notification to Google without much of a problem. So always keep a note of all the work you have done in this regard as this can act as a valid proof of your efforts. Some basic information you must keep a track of includes link from URL, link from Domain, date of requests to remove links, link status, contact information, etc.
• Google webmaster guidelines are very strict about purchasing links that can pass PageRank. In case you have brought links to your site, remove them because in most probability they are the ones that are causing the penalty. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to remove all your paid links. In case, some of your paid links are sending any referral traffic to your site via Google Analytics, ask the concerned webmaster to change the link to re=”nofollow” rather than removing them completely.
• Plagiarism is one of the most common problems on the internet. This can sometimes lead to creation of unnatural links. In case you find people copying content from your website, ask them to remove it immediately. In case, they do not respond, you can always file a complaint with the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), who will then remove the copied content.
Once you have taken all the above measures, you will have to submit a reconsideration request to Google. While filing your reconsideration request, remember that very few requests go through in the first time. You will have to try multiple times before Google finally removes the manual actions. The bottom line is that unnatural links harm your websites in more ways than one, so it is always better to create genuine links and invest in an SEO organization like Design Mechanics India Pvt. Ltd. that uses proper methods and techniques to improve your rankings on Google.
